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Magento 2 Release Notes

In the following post, we will gather all Magento 2 release notes starting from 1.0.0-beta. Since every release includes a plethora of improvements and changes, we’ve divided them into several subcategories, such as performance, payment methods, checkout, CMS, etc. These are the latest Magento 2 Release notes from the official repo.

Magento 2.2.4 Release Notes

Magento Open Source 2.2.4 Release Notes

The new Magento 2 version has just arrived. Published on May 2, 2018, Magento 2.2.4 brings lots of features described below. The release includes numerous tools, enhancements, and features. And don’t forget about community contributions. The core highlights are described below.

Highlights

New modules out-of-the-box. Improved tax and shipping calculations right from the cart with the help of Amazon Pay, Vertex, and Klarna Payments.

Magento Shipping and dotmailerimprovements.

Performance improvements and numerous fixes and enhancements to core features..

Lots of community contributions.

Enhancements

Below, you can see changes that are not full-fledged features or bug fixes:

The Improved admin global search is now extensible, translatable, and takes the ACL settings for the current user into account.

An automated checker that enforces the short array syntax convention in a new code.

Magento Commerce 2.2.4 Release Notes

It is also necessary to draw your attention to the release notes of Magento Commerce 2.2.4. The new version was also released on May 2, 2018, and you can find its core features below.

Highlights

The situation with new bundled extensions is just the same as we’ve mentioned above: they add instant and accurate tax and shipping calculations right from the cart with the help of Amazon Pay, Vertex, and Klarna Payments.

Magento Shipping and dotmailer bundled extensions have been updated as well.

Numerous fixes and performance improvements have been introduced with Magento Commerce 2.2.4.

Almost 200 community contributions became a part of the new version.

Enhancements

Not full-fledged features or bug fixes are described below.

The admin global search enhancement leads to a translatable and extensible experience that takes the ACL settings for the current user into account.

The CyberSource payment method has been added to the multi-shipping checkout flow. This is a Magento Commerce-specific feature. The Multishipping module has been improved so that the integration process for other payment methods is more developer-friendly.

The automated Magento checker enforces the short array syntax convention via a new code that complies with all requirements of PSR-2.

Dedicated payment and shipping debug log files have been added. Now, they store information specific to those functional areas.

The Emogrifier dependency update to 2.0.0+.

The is_nullreplacement with strict comparison only for models and block in Catalog, Tax, Sales, and EAV.

As you can see, the only Magento Commerce-specific improvement in 2.2.4 is related to the CyberSource payment method. As for the dotmailer enhancements, they are just the same as in the Open Source edition:

Enhanced Abandoned Cart report table;

Merchants can design their own transactional email templates;

Better synchronization of subscriber’s sales data;

Transactional emails per the Store level;

Enhancements in the area of validation for deletion of cron job CSV files.

Magento 2.2.3 Release Notes

Magento Open Source 2.2.3 Release Notes

Originally, the official release notes for Magento Open Source 2.2.3 were published on February 27, 2018, and updated on March 22, 2018. The 2.2.3 version includes 35 enhancements to multiple key areas including product security, the Magento Admin, shipping changes, and a copyright update.

The key security improvement of 2.2.3 limits the ability to use symlinks for /media and other folders. Thus, the use of symlinks for deployment or in /media may lead to problems with uploading or removing images.

Cache management tasks managed through the Magento Admin get a better control system.

The copyright was updated to 2018.

Security enhancements

With the Magento 2.2.3 Open Source, multiple security enhancements have been introduced. They fix numerous vulnerabilities. Luckily, no confirmed attacks related to the fixed issues have occurred. See Magento Security Center for more information. All release notes and fixes are available here: Magento Open Source 2.2.3.

Magento Commerce 2.2.3 Release Notes

Magento Commerce updates introduced in 2.2.3 are just the same as in Magento Open Source. Originally, the official release notes for Magento Commerce 2.2.3 were published on February 27, 2018. The update goes back to March 22, 2018. The 2.2.3 version includes numerous enhancements to various key areas. Although the core vector of the update is product security, it also includes enhancements related to the Magento Admin, shipping, and a copyright.

Note that in 2.2.3, the ability to use symlinks for /media and other folders is limited due to security reasons. Thus, the use of symlinks for deployment or in /media may lead to problems while uploading or removing images.

Highlights

Numerous security enhancements of 2.2.3 fixed vulnerabilities in the following areas:

cross-site request forgery (CSRF)

unauthorized data leaks

authenticated Admin user remote code execution.

The support for Elasticsearch 5.x has been introduced in 2.2.3.

The Magento Admin now supports the latest USPS shipping changes.

A better control system for cache management tasks managed in the Magento Admin has been introduced.

The copyright was updated to 2018.

Security enhancements

With the Magento 2.2.3 Commerce, multiple security enhancements became a part of the platform fixing numerous vulnerabilities. Luckily, no confirmed attacks related to the fixed issues have occurred. You can find more details in the Magento Security Center. All release notes and fixes are described here: Magento Commerce 2.2.3.

Magento Community Edition 2.1.3

Unregistered customers can reorder or add items to an existing order in the Admin without re-entering credit card details;

Redesigned Payment Methods page in Admin;

Slow SQL media queries were removed;

Advanced configurable products management in Admin;

Support for special symbols during CSV import/export;

Two new web API endpoints in the Sales module: easily process refunds from an order or invoice;

Credit memo for particular invoice or order;

Details about refunded items in invoice or order;

More efficient processing of large catalogs.

Magento Community Edition 2.1.2

Multiple bug fixes and improvements;

Support for PHP 7.0.4 and 5.6.5;

MySQL 5.7 compatibility;

2 web APIs for the Sales module.

Magento Community Edition 2.1.1

Several functional fixes and improvements in the area of static assets deployment.

Magento 2.1.0 Release Notes

Magento Community Edition 2.1.0 General Availability has been released recently. And since it includes tons of fixes, enhancements, and improvements, we are here to shed light on them. Check the following update to discover all new features that are now available in Magento 2.1.0.

3 Core New Features Are:

PayPal Enhancements (in-context checkout + saved credit cards: buyers can pay with PayPal without leaving your website site; there is no need to re-enter credit card information in checkout or while reordering items);

Braintree Hosted Fields (sensitive payment information is securely collected, so everyone comply with the simplest set of PCI compliance requirements; checkout layout can be customized; Braintree settlement reports are available right in the Magento 2 admin);

Security enhancements

On our website, we have a separate post about security vulnerabilities of Magento. You might have read about all these patches that should be installed to protect precise data. Otherwise, malefactors can access customer information or take over administrator sessions. Therefore, it is recommend to upgrade your Magento software to the latest version as soon as possible, since it includes lots of security improvements. And Magento 2.1.0 is not an exception, so hurry up to upgrade your store.

Fixed Issues

Shopping

Problems with the Add to Cart button translation are now fixed: GITHUB-4181;

In case of registered users, a cart returns a complete list of products.

Fixed amount discount can be created for an entire cart.

Cart Price Rules now support coupon codes generation.

Redundant GET requests are no longer performed if there are items in a shopping cart.

Date/time fields now work as expected.

Exceptions are logged in a file under var/report (in default mode).

Cart has been fixed, so rates for custom shipping methods are updated and listed as expected when you change the shipping address: GITHUB-4679.

Reordering a product with a required custom option (type = file) no longer causes an error when opening the shopping cart: GITHUB-4058.

A customer is not logged out after clicking the Go to Checkout link and then clicking the Shopping Cart link.

Discounts have been fixed, so they behave consistently.

Conditions can be seamlessly saved in Create Cart Price Rules.

It is possible to log out with the enabled persistent shopping cart functionality.

Shopping cart shipping estimation has been fixed as well: it no longer fails randomly.

Downloadable products are now supported by Magento 2, so you can easily create them.

It is possible to place an order for an item in case its amount exceeds half of item’s stock.

All files are now compiled by the setup:di:compile script as expected: GITHUB-2888.

When defined as optional, attribute ‘setup_version’ is missing for the module error: (GITHUB-1493).

For further information on fixes and updates related to bundle products, import/export, messages and documentation, admin, API, and other areas of Magento 2, check this official release notes: Magento 2.1.0 Release Notes.

As for known issues of the new version, the Cart Price rules are not applied to total amount/item conditions: GITHUB-5025.

Magento 2.0.4 Release Notes

Both Enterprise and Community Editions of Magento 2.0.4 include a lot of security enhancements and performance improvements. Download and install the latest software version to ensure that you receive all security enhancements. Implement the new version in a development environment first. After you will confirm that it works as expected, deploy it to a production store.

Bugs fixed in Magento 2.0.4:

APPSEC-1263 – server-side cross-site scripting via a user name during customer registration. JavaScript from a user name can be executed in the admin context and steal some precious data.

APPSEC-1379 – reflected cross-site scripting in the Authorize.net module which has several parameters vulnerable to reflected XSS attacks.

Magento Community Edition 2.0

Magento 2 Community Edition is finally available. The next-generation commerce platform offers the following features and improvements:

Magento 2 Release Notes: Architectural Innovations

The tech stack of Magento 2 Community edition is based on PHP frameworks and efficient coding patterns.

With a modular code base structure, the platform offers fine-grain customizations as well as the ability to easily add new or replace available features.

Service contracts also introduce a major architectural innovation. The new feature provide stable interfaces that ensure seamless upgrades and simplify various code customizations.

As for theming and layout framework, they provide the ability to rapidly change the way your Magento 2 website looks like for the needs of seasonal campaigns, market expansions, or product presentations.

There are also new extensive and more efficient APIs for promotions and taxes. As for the old ones, they were revamped for better integration with third party solutions.

And due to automated testing, the system offers essentially enhanced code quality and accelerated QA process. Consequently, Magento 2 shows much faster time to market than its predecessor.

As for new quarterly releases, merchants can easily implement them adding new functionality to a store.

Magento 2 Release Notes: Performance

In Magento Community Edition 2.0 page load time has been increased significantly due to several client-side optimizations. For instance, optimized work with JavaScript: the system minimizes and bundles the code; compressed images; or improving static content browser caching.

As for server-side improvements, they include integrated Apache Varnish caching with minimal tuning, which leads to much faster performance.

Magento 2 Release Notes: Scalability

Key subsystems for such processes as order management, checkout, or product management now has standalone databases. Combined with the MySQL Cluster support, they enable marvelous scalability.

Magento 2 Release Notes: Admin and Business Tools

Magento 2 offers a new intuitive admin interface, which provides the ability not only to manage daily tasks, but to monitor business performance. And it is touch-friendly now!

Besides, everyone can customize and save various Admin panel views. This feature not only simplify daily routine tasks of administrators, but essentially reduce time required for managing products, processing orders, or analyzing customer data.

There is also a new tool for step-by-step product creation which enables faster operations with products.

As for improved product data import capabilities, they speed up the process of sending data up to 4 times.

Magento 2 Release Notes: Marketing Features

The checkout is essentially minimized in Magento 2. Now it is much faster, consists of less steps, and requires minimum information. Registered customers are recognized and offered to check out faster.

Now, it is possible to create an account from the order Thank You page in just one click.

A shopping cart now shows a detailed order summary, including images. Such an improvement encourages shoppers to complete checkout.

Magento 2 features out-of-the-box integration with key payment gateways as well as provides the ability to send payment information from the browser to the gateway in order t improve security.

The system include such themes as Blank and Luma. They allow merchants to create engaging and SEO-optimized shopping experiences faster.